Color photographic materials employing two-equivalent pyrazolone magenta dye-forming couplers are known in the art as demonstrated, for example, by the Sakai and others U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,918, the Furutachi and others U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,728 and German Off. DE 3,730,557. Two-equivalent pyrazolone magenta couplers are advantageous for use in color photographic materials owing to their low cost, high efficiency, good activity, adjustable hue and suitability for use in processes without formaldehyde. However, one disadvantage associated with the two-equivalent pyrazolone magenta dye-forming couplers is that they have low pKa values. The pKa value is -log Ka, wherein Ka is the acid dissociation constant. Since these couplers tend to have low pKa values, they may be significantly ionized when films or papers coated with them are placed in solutions of low pH, that is, a pH of 5-6, or less. Thus, when photographic materials containing these low pKa couplers are used in a process which does not employ a stop bath between the development and bleach steps, non-imagewise dye formation occurs owing to coupling with developer that is carried over into the bleach solution and oxidized therein. This phenomenon, which is referred to as continued coupling, produces undesirable increases in background density (Dmin). Continued coupling also leads to unacceptable density variability in processed films owing to variations in bleach pH as the bleach solutions become "seasoned" by continued use. Accordingly, photographic films and papers containing low pKa couplers such as the two-equivalent pyrazolone couplers often exhibit continued coupling because the couplers are more highly ionized at low pH and thus readily react with oxidized developer in the low pH bleach solutions. Thus, there is a need to provide color photographic materials which contain two-equivalent pyrazolone magenta dye-forming couplers and which exhibit a reduction in the continued coupling phenomenon.
It is also well known in the color photographic art that couplers are used in combination with solvents which facilitate their incorporation in the photographic materials and/or improve one or more properties of the dyes formed from the couplers. For example, the Ogawa and others U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,449 discloses combinations of couplers and one or more high boiling organic solvents for use in color photographic materials. The Kato and others. U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,975 discloses aldehydebis type magenta couplers in combination with high boiling organic solvents and other additives.
It is also known to use magenta dye-forming couplers in combination with one or more image-modifying couplers, particularly in color negative films. The image-modifying couplers release development inhibitors on reaction with oxidized developer to provide one or more functions such as gamma or curve shape control, sharpness enhancement, granularity reduction and color correction via interlayer effects. The image-modifying couplers include development inhibitor releasing (DIR) couplers from which inhibitor is released directly as a coupling-off group, and development inhibitor activated releasing (DIAR) couplers from which inhibitor is released as a coupling-off group after a timed delay which results from an additional chemical reaction step. Because the inhibitor releasing couplers are used in combination with the magenta dye-forming couplers to provide improved color images, it is important that any means for reducing the continued coupling phenomena of the magenta dye-forming couplers does not unfavorably alter the advantageous effects provided by the inhibitor releasing couplers.